Chains and anaphoric dependence : on reconstruction and its implications

Other Contributors:Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Advisor:James T. Higginbotham.

Department:Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Publisher:Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Date Issued:1986

Abstract:

This thesis is concerned with developing an account within the Government and Binding (GB) theory of the grammaticality of such structures as (1), and exploring the implications of this account for the theory of empty categories, chains, and scope. The hallmark characteristic of such grammatical S-Structure representations as (1) is that the anaphor is outside the c-command domain of its understood antecedent. The basic anaphoric effect is termed connectivity. 1) [which of each other's friends][did the men see t]? Chapter 1 is a brief overview of the necessary definitions presumed in the thesis, and an outline of the subsequent chapters. Chapter 2 introduces a large body of data which must be treated on a par with (1), and reviews and criticizes several existing proposals which have been made to account for (1). The chapter argues that the binding theory must apply to structures having the essential form of (1). We demonstrate that no treatment which involves lowering the anaphor into the c-command domain of the antecedent via "reconstruction" operations, or involves applying the Binding Theory at a level at which WH movement is not represented, can be maintained. Chapter 3 develops a revision of the binding theory, focusing on Condition A, which is capable of treating all the connectivity data in a unified way. The major formal construct proposed in the chapter is the chain accessibility sequence, essentially a path of nodes through which the potential antecedents for an expression are accessed. The revised binding theory is defined in terms of such sequences; as the name implies, the notion chain plays a prominent role. This approach to connectivity is developed in the spirit of the Path theory of Kayne (1983) and Pesetsky (1982). We also discuss properties of structures of the form of {l), but where the constituent containing the anaphor is predicative in nature. We shall see that the predicative nature of the constituent significantly constrains the possibilities of assigning the anaphor an antecedent. This chapter adopts, and argues in favor of, the Linking theory of binding introduced by Higginbotham (1983). Chapter 4 focuses on the theory of empty categories, arguing that it is desirable to construct the theory so that no empty categories bear binding features (the features[+/- anaphoric] and[+/- pronominal] are thus restricted to overt categories). This proposal, which I term the No Features Hypothesis, departs from the characteristic treatment of ECs in GB theory. The chapter adopts Brody's (1985) proposals concerning the distribution of PRO and NP-trace. We adopt, and later extend, the Local Binding Condition (LBC) on A chains, argued by Rizzi (1982) to constrain the well-formedness of A chains. We reformulate it in terms of Linking theory, as the Chain Obviation Condition (CCC), and argue that it holds of all chain types. This is shown to be a principle with considerable generality, subsuming the LBC, Condition C of the binding theory, and the anti-c-command condition on linking. Adopting the COC, along with the NFH, allows the elimination of the class R-expression from the inventory of binding types. It will be shown that the anti-c-command condition on parasitic gaps derives directly from the CCC, with no stipulations. The chapter concludes with a defense of the proposal that the theory of anaphora must recognize anaphoric dependence and obviation as separate relations (as argued by Lasnik (1976), (1981), and Higgginbotham (1985)). Chapter 5 discusses constraints on the interpretation of sentences in which a quantificational NP is the antecedent of an NP-trace which it does not c-command. These considerations lead us to formulate a constraint on movement operations. The chapter also argues that the operations of WH-movement and QR are strictly ordered in the LF component.